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Rhode Island, New Zealand, and southern California recently reported sharp increases in sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). Health department officials stated that these increases appeared to be due to the more widespread use of social media like Tinder, Grindr, and Facebook, which allow users to readily connect with and meet others. The purpose of this study was to see if U.S. states that have more users of social networking sites, dating sites, and dating apps like Match.com, Ashley Madison, Our Time, Down Dating, Bumble, Zoosk, Hinge, Score, At First Sight, Plenty of Fish, Eharmony, Adult Friend Finder, Tinder, Grindr, and Facebook have more cases of STDs after controlling for population, race, age, income, education, and population density. It was found that states with more users of Match.com, OKCupid, and Down Dating had a larger number of cases of STDs, while states with more users of Our Time, Ashley Madison, Facebook, How About We, Hinge, Adult Friend Finder, Grindr, Bumble, Score, Tinder, and At First Sight had fewer cases of STDs. While social networking sites make it easier for individuals to be exposed to an STD since in-network individuals may share an STD, many sites either attract individuals who are not interested in a short-term sexual relationship or who take precautions to avoid contracting an STD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study was conducted from December 3013 to November 2014, at Al-Qurna North of Basrah. The study aimed to investigate the diversity structure of fish communities in the North part of Shatt Al-Arab river. Three stations were selected, North Qurna, confluence of Al-Sweeb river in Shatt Al-Arab river and at Al-Shaffi area. Samples were collected by using seine net, fixed net, draft net, cost net and electrofishing. A total of 18342 fish belonging to 32 species of Osteichthyes relate to 13 families were captured. Cyprinidae is the dominant family, represented by 13 species. The total number of individuals were collected from North of Qurna 2870 fish consisted of 22 species, 6983 fish fauna from Al-Sweeb comprising 27 species and 8489 from Al-Shaffi belong to 27 species. The highest abundance species in the collected area were Liza abu, Carassius auratus, Tilapia zillii and Oreochromis aureus (36.71, 31.55, 9.84 and 5,63% respectively). Diversity index (H) ranged 0.92-1.89, Richness (D) 0.95-2.59 and Evenness (J) 0.39-0.78 for study area, the entire similarity 52.91% according to Jaccared similarity index. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Atrazine chlorohydrolase (AtzA) and its close relative melamine deaminase (TriA) differ by just nine amino acid substitutions but have distinct catalytic activities. Together, they offer an informative model system to study the molecular processes that underpin the emergence of new enzymatic function. Here we have constructed the potential evolutionary trajectories between AtzA and TriA, and characterized the catalytic activities and biophysical properties of the intermediates along those trajectories. The order in which the nine amino acid substitutions that separate the enzymes could be introduced to either enzyme, while maintaining significant catalytic activity, was dictated by epistatic interactions, principally between three amino acids within the active site: namely, S331C, N328D and F84L. The mechanistic basis for the epistatic relationships is consistent with a model for the catalytic mechanisms in which protonation is required for hydrolysis of melamine, but not atrazine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to analyze the extent to which major US airlines respond to one another in quality of service improvements.Design/methodology/approach Utilizing monthly data, the authors estimate a five-equation vector autoregressive model to determine which airline leads or follows others in quality of service improvements.Findings This study found that the five major airlines make interrelated decisions when responding to customer complaints concerning flight problems, over-sales, reservations, ticketing, boarding, and customer service. Every airline either responds to or influences the changes in customer complaints faced by at least one other airline, while some airlines do both. However, only one such relationship was found when examining if airlines change the percent of flight delays they have control over in response to changes in flight delays faced by another airline.Practical implications The number of passenger complaints against an airline can be influenced by the airline, as can the number of carrier-caused flight delays. The industry leaders in responsiveness to consumer complaints are US Airways and United. However, airlines do not, as a group, respond to the carrier-caused delays of their competitors. The prescription to improve airline service vis-à-vis flight delays is simple: tell passengers why flights are delayed. To protect or gain market share, airlines would compete for customers by minimizing flight delays in a similar manor to how they respond to customer complaints.Originality/value No other paper that the authors are aware of has addressed the issue of identifying leaders and followers in the US airline industry regarding changes in service quality as reflected by changes in passenger complaints and flight delays. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]